ATP Tour

Tiafoe avoids late drama, beats Musetti to reach Cincinnati SFs

Frances Tiafoe overcame Lorenzo Musetti in an entertaining Friday-night showdown at the Cincinnati Open, where the American held his nerve to book a spot in the semi-finals.

The home hope defeated Musetti 7-6(2), 7-5 after two hours and 17 minutes, during which Tiafoe was unable to serve out the win while holding a match point at 5-4 in the second set. However, the 17th seed did not flinch. Tiafoe played a high quality ensuing game to break back, before serving out the victory on his fourth match point.

Tiafoe dropped just five points behind his first delivery — despite making just 44 per cent of his first serves — to set an all-American semi-final in Ohio. Tiafoe will face Brandon Nakashima (who he leads 6-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series) in the last four, marking the first time since 2010 (Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish) that two American men have reached the Cincinnati semis.

“I just gotta play to win,” Tiafoe said in his on-court interview. “We’re all just [searching for that] one per cent, trying to figure it out. The guy who plays a little more brave at certain moments gets it. I was hitting my shots great tonight. From the back of the court I’ve been playing really well, so I was counting on that.”

Now tied with Tommy Paul for the most wins by an American this season (36), Tiafoe is into his third Masters 1000 semi-final and first since reaching the final at this very tournament in 2024. The 28-year-old will aim to go one step further this weekend and claim his biggest career title.

Tiafoe, No. 17 in the PIF ATP Rankings, broke his Lexus ATP Head2Head tie with Musetti, improving to 4-3 in their series. Tiafoe is the fourth man this season to record eight Top-20 wins, joining Jannik Sinner (13), Carlos Alcaraz (8) and Thiago Agustin Tirante (8).

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